...[I]f you can get the roasted chicken on its first pass through the dining room, then it’s a real steal. This is one dish that has changed a bit over the past several years – it used to be served with seasoned salt, but no additional herbs on the bird – but is just as good as ever. Now there is no salt on the side, but some garlic on the chicken’s perfectly light and crispy skin.

[via DonRocks]

2941 Fairview Park Drive, Falls Church (703) 270-1500

Scott Drewno at The Source

You could say I generally admired Scott Drewno’s Asian-inspired cooking at The Source by Wolfgang Puck. But I didn’t fall hard for it until he introduced his izakaya menu at the downstairs lounge. The menu’s inspiration came not from Drewno’s diminutive Austrian boss (or not just from said Teutonic restaurant tycoon), but from his tireless investigations into Asian cookery, including countless trips to Falls Church’s mom-and-pop eateries. Personally, I dig this back story, which makes me feel kind of cuddly about Puck’s celebrity-chef outpost on Pennsylvania Avenue NW. But not as much as I dig Drewno’s Korean-style short ribs with kimchi or his mini banh mi with country pâté, or his crispy chicken wings or his pork-belly steam bun, or his…

575 Pennsylvania Ave. NW (202) 637-6100

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Unlike Four Sisters, Fall Church’s other perennial favorite for Vietnamese cooking, Present enjoyed a meteoric rise almost from the day it opened. Yours truly contributed to the hype last year, when I called it, without much hesitation, the “area’s best Vietnamese restaurant.” Like others who’ve visited Present since its initial rush of positive press, I’ve sampled a few plates that haven’t matched its now-lofty reputation, including a deep-fried tuna that hit the table DOA, barely tripping the taste buds. Has this made me reconsider my superlative? Of course. But I’ve come to the conclusion that, despite some recent gaffes, chef Luong Tran and his Present team continue to produce the most thought-provoking and detail-oriented Vietnamese cooking in the area. Is it always the best? I guess that depends on whether the kitchen is hitting its marks, which tells you something about the restaurant’s ability to handle crowds and a crush of ticket orders. Present would do well to study Four Sisters, which has been a model of consistency for years, even when the place is overrun with waiting diners.

6678 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church (703) 531-1881

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Until reader Mike Henry alerted me to Ba Le Vietnamese Deli in Langley Park, I had generally assumed a trip to Falls Church was required for any decent banh mi in the area. But last week I made not one but two visits to the strip center deli.

Four sandwiches later, I'm a serious fan.

Much to my surprise (and shame), Ba Le has been opened for nearly a decade. One of the employees told me over the counter that Ba Le also has a store in Northern Virginia, but if you do a Google search, you'll find (presumably unrelated) Ba Le delis in several locations around the area, and even in another country. Sometimes you'll find it spelled Bale (see picture below for the signage in Langley Park), but I think that's more a function of American ignorance than actual spelling. (Incidentally, after way too much searching, I'm still not sure what "ba le" means, but it seems clear that it doesn't translate into "Paris.")

Whatever. Everything, the counter employee told me, is prepared in-house (well, at the Virginia store) for Ba Le's banh mi, including the pâté and the head cheese for the No. 1 combo. A sign on the bin for the sandwich rolls claims the bread is baked fresh daily, too, but I couldn't confirm via a couple of phone calls today ("I'm busy. Call back later." Click.) if the stuff is made in-house.

The bread can be the weakest link, a little too crackly as the sometimes stale roll breaks down into crumbs all over your lap. But the fillings are fresh and, better yet, smack of fish sauce, that pungent liquid packed with natural umami. This is not a sandwich for tourists.

You can order your banh mi with or without sliced jalapenos, but why anyone would forgo the ringlets is beyond me. Without the heat, the cooling cilantro leaves are robbed of one of their primary functions: playing the foil to the peppers. Ba Le's julienne veggies are lightly pickled, as not to dominate the sandwich, and its head cheese is not a rubbery slice of deli meat daring you to bite into it and pull out a length of chewy pig's ear. This head cheese is carefully prepared to provide just the right amount of texture.

The condiments and seasonings are the final grace notes, whether the yellow-tinted house-made mayonnaise or the liberal amounts of cracked black pepper. They add richness, spice, and, in the case of the fish sauce, a depth of flavor that turns an average banh mi experience into an excellent one.

The man who normally occupies this space has been waiting a while for this day. "Can you please open already?" Tim wrote in January, declaring that "of all the pizzerias scheduled to open soon, none gets me more excited than" the then-mythic Falls Church joint which had been in the works for two years.

The restaurant, a collaboration between 2 Amys pizzaiolo Edan MacQuaid and the team behind 2941, promises to hew to the Neapolitan style.  A press release claims that MacQuaid will fire his pies in a wood-burning oven made by a third-generation Naples company called Forno Napoletano.

But in the pizzeria arms race, it sounds like ovens are yesterday's weapon. "MacQuaid credits his Pietro Berto diving arm dough mixer as one of the keys to creating the unique dough at Pizzeria Orso," claims the restaurant's press release.

The oven and mixer should be operating at full tilt for lunch and dinner beginning today, at 400 South Maple Avenue in Falls Church.

Maneki Neko

Maneki Neko opened in 2002, and yet Y&H has never step foot in it. Fortunately, Restaurant Rater FallsChurchResident has. Here's FCR's report:

The first impression I got walking through the doors to Maneki Neko: "Wow. Charming!" The presentation is almost overwhelming; the walls are painted gold and red, and there are tiny glass kittens (Maneko Nekos are "lucky cats" in Japanese lore) decorating the restaurant.

The service staff is very competent and responsive — refills are quick, the time from ordering until you get your food isn't long, and your appetizers are brought out first. I'm guessing it's just "Japanese politeness," but the waitresses are a little too quiet for my tastes. The sushi chefs at the bar energetically great you as you enter, though: "Irrashaimase!"

Most Japanese places around Falls Church seem to focus on sushi; Maneki shines brightest in their kitchen entrees, which is a huge plus as someone that doesn't care much for sushi. I've found Maneki's appetizers and entrees (especially the gyouza, teriyaki chicken and tonkatsu) far better than their competition in the area.

As I said, I'm not much of a sushi fan — but my group of friends is, and they say Maneki's sushi is good, but nothing to write home about. But if you're looking for authentic Japanese kitchen food, look no further.

Photo courtesy of Maneki Neko

Y&H thought he would engage in a little warm-up battle before taking on the ultimate pollo a la brasa challenge later this winter. (Scroll to the comments section of that link to get an eye-ful.) So here are today's challengers: El Pollo Rico in Wheaton vs. Super Chicken in Falls Church.

I'll tell you one thing that I don't like about Super Chicken right away: its crowd flow. Take a look at the picture after the jump. There's only a narrow space between the ordering counter and beverage cooler through which customers must enter and exit. For those of us who like our personal space undisturbed, this choke zone seems like one potential groping area.

But you don't really give a damn about my personal space, do you? You want to know about the chicken.

I like Super Chicken's birds, but they're altogether different from those at El Pollo Rico. For starters, SC's birds are deeply charred — you could almost call them blackened — and they're saturated with moisture. Just look at your Styrofoam container when you're done eating. It runs heavy with juices.

These characteristics make me think that Super Chicken brines and charbroils its birds longer than they do at EPR. That may be SC's signature or it may be an anomaly. More tastings can only prove that theory. But SC's birds also are significantly more salty than those at El Pollo Rico, which also may be part of the restaurant's signature. Super Chicken's brine could, by design, include a ton more sodium.

Put this all together, and you have a fine example of pollo a la brasa. Super Chicken's birds are wonderfully moist and salty, with a pronounced herby flavor, perhaps thyme. They're also quite smoky from that thick coating of char. All of these characteristics make me a fan of Super Chicken. Hell, I'm a fan of just standing there in the restaurant and smelling the aroma of those smoked birds.

But do I think Super Chicken is better than El Pollo Rico? No. I think I still prefer El Pollo Rico's approach to rotisserie chicken. I taste more aromatics and more complexity in EPR's birds; I also don't feel so beat over the head with salt and brining solution.

Yet the bigger question for me is this: Can you even really compare the two and say one is better than the other? They're so different that it seems more a matter of taste than a matter of technical or flavor superiority. When two Peruvian chicken outlets reach this level of craft, it's like picking between LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. You're good either way.

Next up: El Pollo Rico vs. Super Pollo!

There's a real family vibe at Super Chicken

The potential grope zone

You're so close to the fire and smoke you could get high from it

The delightfully odd mural in the Super Chicken parking lot

Of all the pizzerias scheduled to open soon, none gets me more excited than Pizzeria Orso, the planned project between former 2Amys pie-maker Edan MacQuaid and the owners of 2941.

The problem is, I don't know how much longer I can sustain this excitement. I mean, this pizzeria has been on the boards for nearly two years now, to judge from this thread on DonRockwell.com. Rockwell even got ahold of the floor plans, for crying out loud.

Despite all of this chatter, however, nobody has a definite opening date, or even a tentative one. The best we have is this comment from MacQuaid on the Rockwell board in early December (that's December '09):

Hopefully construction will start soon.

Edan MacQuaid, if you're reading this, can you give us a better idea of the timeline? Is there even financing in place to move this project forward? If not, I need to know. I can't sustain this level of enthusiasm forever.

UPDATE, 3:13: Last week, Northern Virginia magazine's Warren Rojas published a blog item on Pizzeria Orso. It says construction has begun, and the place could open as early as May.

The front view of the planned Pizzeria Orso

For those who have pawed through Y&H's 2009 Dining Guide, you know that I'm a serious fan of Present, a Vietnamese restaurant unlike any other in the area. Y&H, of course, is just one of a number of media sources beating the drum for Present.

But what do eaters who don't get paid to chew think of the place? Here's what Restaurant Rater RMF9 had to say about Present, which is really a comment more about the price of becoming famous:

Upscale decor, a large menu of fairly priced items as well as specialties you may never have seen. I visited when it first opened (and was one of the only patrons). My recent visit they approached full capacity! The restaurant is across the I-Hop in a location that used to be the Korean Restaurant, Bee Wan – Secret Garden.

By contrast, MsKungfuBokChoy (who gets Y&H's award for Handle of the Year) offered a more detailed look at Present:

Met up with my friends here for dinner without a reservation and it was full! We had to wait 15 minutes, which to me isn't so bad. The service was great. The food taste and looked great. I thought my caramel fish portion was a bit small, but I was full at the end of my meal so it was all good. My only complaint is the menu... It took me forver to go through this menu because the way they named the entrees. Instead of calling it caramel fish, they called it Fish in Shallow Water. My boyfriend ordered the beef stew and they called it Fragrant Travel Beef. I thought the food was great, but because of the way they name their entrees on the menu, I'll just stick to Four Sisters and their easy to follow menu.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery